The Tigers pressured the Rams early and often, and set the tone from the opening faceoff. Biddeford maintained possession for the majority of the first half, and kept the ball in the Deering zone for nearly the entire opening 30 minutes.
Although the Rams held off the Tigers early, Biddeford would score four goals in the final 12 minutes of the half to take the 4-0 lead at the break. Brooklyn Goff, Paige Laverriere, Abby Allen and Sarrah Marcotte tallied scores in the first half.
“It was so important — and even though they had us in the opening minutes we felt it was important to keep it within their 30 and letting them know that we were there to stay. Their goalie came out really far so it was just adjusting to their defensive strategy,” said Albert. “(It was) offense by defense, if the ball went past midfield our defense was right there to keep it forward, they worked together to make sure everything was kept forward.”
The Tigers continued to pour it on in the second half, getting goals from Marcotte, Laverriere, and Hailey Allen in the opening 13 minutes to extend the lead to 7-0. Abby Allen would record her second score of the day at the 7:30 mark to give the Tigers the 8-0 advantage. Deering’s Alli Donovan would score the Rams’ lone goal with just over three minutes remaining.
Laverriere picked up two assists in the win, while Abby Allen, Hailey Allen, and Megan Mourmouras recorded one apiece. Goalie Taylor Wildes made two stops for the Tigers.
It was quite the debut for freshman Abby Allen, who kicked off her high school career with two goals and an assist.
“It feels great, just to work with the team and to get a good head start the first game of the season. We’ve been working really hard so it turns out that it paid off. We’re very confident,” said Allen.
“I have a feeling that she has a big year coming, a big four years coming. It was a big start,” added Albert.
The Tigers improve to 1-0 this season while Deering drops to 0-1. Albert feels confident in her club, a team that is looking to emerge as an elite one this fall.
“We’ve played a lot of field hockey in the last two and a half weeks, you see that now and we have a lot of maturity. Although we only have three seniors, we have a lot of juniors and sophomores that have all played together, we have eight returning starters so they’re taking that experience with them,” said Albert. “It’s good to move forward from this, but there are still some things we need to work on and they know it.”
— Associate Sports Editor Alex Sponseller can be reached at asponseller@journaltribune.com or at 282-1535 ext. 323. Follow the Journal Tribune Sports Department on Twitter @JournalTsports.
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